Photographic Update!

Hello!

A variety of photos - enjoy!

Eric's old bike photo - 72 hours off

crew on the river - 72 hours off

breakfast

Our petite chambre

Hiking up Mt. McKay

Hiking down Mt. McKay

Murder Mystery Night - Sam was the killer.

Sam giving out the love at dogsledding (Novemer 9th)

There were 42 husky-cross dogs (all of whom were completely adorable) and we got to harness them, rope them up and ride in a golf cart which they pulled.  The owner, Paul, bought a few packs of Iditarod Trail dogs and has kept them in prime racing condition.  It was the best way to make up for 3 months of no canine company.

Terry Fox Monument on the clearest day of November

A piece of Lake Superior coast line

plucking a grouse - delicious

I hope this is enough to satisfy all the promises I have made.  I am getting much better at uploading more frequently.  

A small update:

I came home to the Katimavik house a week ago.  My billeting period was %110 great, I could not have been paired with a better family.  Anthea and Scot took my sightseeing, fed me great food, taught me new card games, let me drive their car, took me to get my hair cut and made my brain hurt with intense philosophical conversations.  It was a vacation that was definitely needed.  The sauna with Siggy and friends was excellent and would definitely be a killer warm up after a long day of skiing.  Note to Dad: build sauna.  

On Tuesday the group went dogsledding! see picture above.  As mentioned there were 42 beautiful dogs  who would greet us by jumping up to our chests and whimpering.  Paul is racing this winter down in the states and is in the process of training different teams of dogs. We went on a 5km ride and it was so neat watching them gear up and down the hills.  The dogs at the back would start to pull and twitch at the ropes and get the dogs in front of them fired up and so on up the line of 12 dogs.  Definitely something I will be doing again, and something I highly recommend.

Wednesday we went to play "goalball" at a school in Fort William (which as it turns out.. is NOT the ghetto end of town.)  It was a game invented after WWII when returning veterans who were blind needed games to play.  Two teams of three use a ball (with a bell inside) to score points.  You are blindfolded and put into a ring of rope which helps you orient yourself.  The objective is to roll the ball past the opposing team and to stop any balls rolled to your end of the court.

Fairly simply game right?

Not at all.  Difficult to start out with, but by the time you've played a few games it got a lot easier and your sense of hearing was heightened immensely.  

Friday and Saturday we drove an hour out of town and spent time at Tenkula farms, owned by a woman named Lisa who breeds Tennessee Walking horses.  We stayed the night in her hay barn and the temperature dropped to at least negative 7.  It was fun times!  Snuggling was a mandatory activity on this excursion and we made little hay cabins to sleep in.  The ride was great, Dalandrea's horse and my horse were egging each other on and both of them would not stop jumping.  I think I took flight 6 times during the ride.  Dalandrea fell off, horse riding - not her cup of tea. Turns out they were the only two horse that weren't Tennessee Walkers (whaaaat luck) so their pace isn't as quick.  To compensate they were trotting and jumping all over the freaking place to keep up.  Also, mine had a cut leg, thus lacked the capacity to walk through mud without freaking out.  Hence the jumping. I still had a ridiculously good time.  Finnish pancakes for breakfast!

This week my new boss starts, but unfortunately I won't be spending time at The Arthritis Society. I am house manager again this week, this time with Millie!  Should be fun times, we're making Colombian food as Millie is from Colombia.

oh hey, look at this.

http://www.ted.com/

BYE!

Petra